Student Name: Mared
Pathway Programme: Pathways to Charity and Development
Internship Role: Impact Assessor
Internship Employer: Turning Heads
Summary of Organisation: Turning Heads was set up in 2018 as a community interest company with an overarching aim to improve the opportunities for adults with additional needs Post-19 and create employment options. Since then, Turning Heads have diversified what we do and become very much rooted in the community, delivering a variety of services and opportunities.Â
We have grown as an organisation and react to the needs of the community and the local area – we look at what is missing and locally and try to see if we can fill that gap. We work with people and organisations across Torbay. This includes families, children, people with learning disabilities, those who are furthest from employment and education and those who might be isolated or vulnerable.
Please briefly outline the project/tasks/responsibilities you worked on during your Professional Pathways internship:
“As an impact assessor, I was tasked with producing an impact report primarily for grant funding applications across Turning Heads’ three main initiatives — the social supermarket, the skills centre, and the community café. Working alongside a fellow intern, I visited each site in person to learn about operations and conducted interviews with key stakeholders including staff, volunteers and clients. This qualitative evidence was then transformed into a visual impact report.”
What achievement(s) were you particularly proud of during your Pathways internship?
“In our first few days we conducted site visits across Turning Heads’ main initiatives, with plans to gather further stakeholder perspectives throughout the week. However, midway through the placement a red weather warning was issued and public transport due to the extreme weather was severely disrupted, preventing us from travelling to Torquay.
Rather than lose the time, we used it productively — drawing on the evidence already gathered to produce the original one-page impact summary ahead of schedule. Our line manager approved this draft later the next day.
With half the placement still remaining and the brief already met, we decided to go further. We produced a comprehensive impact report covering each initiative in depth — transforming what was a setback in our original plan into an opportunity to exceed what was asked of us.”
Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, what advice would you give to other students to ensure they gain as much as possible from the experience?
“My key piece of advice would be to communicate proactively and identify what you need early.
For us, quantitative evidence was central to the report — things like the number of families served at the social supermarket each week. Recognising this early, we requested any existing statistics from our line manager before the placement began, which proved invaluable when we came to drafting our report ahead of schedule.
With only 35 hours, there’s no time to lose waiting for information to come to you. Ask questions early, flag dependencies as soon as you spot them, and keep double checking everyone is working from the same understanding.”
Why would you recommend the Professional Pathways programme to other students?
“The Professional Pathways Programme offers a genuine opportunity to build your network. Upon finishing our placement, we received a lovely message from Turning Heads inviting us to keep in touch and visit — a very tempting offer given the Tea Leaf Café alone is worth a train journey to Torbay.
Beyond the placement itself, the training week speaker line-up genuinely exceeded expectations and offered real chances to connect with established workers across the sector.
The internship also builds skills that studying at university alone rarely does. Academic briefs are (usually…) clear and explicit in their ask — yet the real world often isn’t. Sometimes all the information isn’t given upfront, and it takes initiative and skill to identify and clarify what’s needed, without overwhelming your manager with questions. The Professional Pathways Programme gave me the chance to practise exactly that.”